This Team will be the Death of their Sensei (and everyone else)
by Esellyn
Summary: A pair of Deidara's (no, not literally) and a single damage control. Just what Kakashi wanted in a team. Yep, precisely what he wanted. AU, Sasuke and Naruto are a pair of pyromaniacs, and Sakura works herself to the bone keeping up in the academy, and keeping her two pyromaniac friends from destroying Konoha.
1. The Explosive Trio

**(A/N) So, if I kill you somehow, I'm sorry. If you die of shock, my bad, but I thought this dynamic would be hilarious. No, this is not a Naruto/Sasuke pairing, I'm not planning any pairings currently. If I do have any, it'll probably be canon pairings.**

"BOYS! What did I say about fireballs and explosions?" Sakura snapped, stalking up to the two boys.

"Um, not to do them?" Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

Sakura took the opportunity to whack both boys on the head. "Not together, you baka!"

"But," Sasuke began, rubbing the bump on his head.

"NO BUTS!" Sakura snapped. "Come on, we'll be late for school if we don't hurry. Again!" She dashed off, forcibly yanking the two boys after her. They exchanged looks, running after their friend.

"Ah, there you three are," Iruka commented, marking something on the sheet he was holding. "Made it on time, but barely."

"Yes!" Sakura said, punching the air. "On time!"

Sasuke shook his head, sitting down at an empty desk, Naruto and Sakura quickly sliding in next to him, Sakura in between the two boys.

"All right, does anyone here know what an explosive seal is?" Iruka asked.

Naruto and Sasuke both put their hands up excitedly, Sakura a moment behind, a resigned look on her face.

"Does anyone other then the explosive trio know what an explosive seal is?" Iruka asked, amusement in his voice. "This will be on the test to graduate to Genin, as explosive seals are a part of a ninja's arsenal, some more than others," as he spoke, he sent a significant look to the explosive trio. "Now, Naruto, do you have any explosive seals on you?"

"Of course! Believe it!" Naruto barked, going up to the front and handing Iruka one of his personal tags.

Iruka held it up for the class to see. "Naruto is a fan of making his own seals, and this is one of them. It uses a burst of chakra to activate, destabilizing the chakra to make it explode."

"Mine make really big explosions! Believe it!"

"And I make sure he doesn't blow up the city," Sakura sighed, getting up and dragging Naruto back to his seat.

Iruka sighed, pitying the poor Jonin stuck with any of those three. Let alone Sasuke and Naruto together. He barely managed and he wasn't training them or letting them spar with anything other than Taijutsu. He continued his lesson, keeping an eye on both the explosive tag Naruto had given him and the boy himself.

He finished his lesson, releasing the kids for lunch.

"You coming, Naruto?" Sasuke asked, glancing at Naruto, who hadn't moved.

"Yeah. Hey guys, I think I've decided what I want to be my specialty."

"Other then explosive seals?" Sasuke asked dryly.

"Explosive seals do not count as a specialty," Sakura scolded him.

"Do too!" Sasuke protested.

"I want to do fuinjutsu!" Naruto announced, standing up. "Believe it!"

"So, explosions," Sasuke replied, smirking at Sakura.

"Explosions are not the only seals used in fuinjutsu," Sakura replied. "Seals like storage seals and paralyzing seals are also common."

"No more lectures!" Naruto shouted, grabbing Sakura and Sasuke's wrists and dragging them after him. "Lunch!"

Sasuke and Sakura retrieved their lunches, Sakura's mom having made hers, and Sasuke having made his own.

"Here you go," Sasuke said, pulling out a second lunch box and handing it to Naruto. "You need lunch too, and don't give me that look."

"You really didn't have to," Naruto said, attempting to wipe away the tears before the other two noticed them.

"Yes, he did," Sakura said firmly. "It's my turn tomorrow, we've decided to take turns making your lunch!"

"Tomorrow's the graduation exam," Naruto pointed out as they sat down. "The exam can't possibly take that long, can it?"

"And we're going to be studying over at the Uchiha compound. We really need to get you to make a perfect clone. You have the other basic jutsu down." Sakura added, biting into a rice ball. "Just not that one."

"And it could cause me to fail!" Naruto cried over dramatically, draping himself over Sasuke and Sakura's laps. They both set their lunches down on top of him and continued eating, used to his antics by now.

"That's why we're going to work on it," Sakura said, swallowing her bite. "After school. My parents already know I'm staying over at the compound but said to stop and come over for dinner. Then we can finish up there."

"Why are we starting at the Uchiha compound then?" Naruto asked, sitting back up.

"Cause the Uchiha compound has a training yard," Sasuke replied. "And there's no one there."

"Less of an audience to witness my failure!" Naruto decided, inhaling the lunch Sasuke had given him.

"It cannot be healthy how fast you can inhale food," Sakura decided.

"Lunch is almost over, we need to be heading back in," Sasuke said, standing up with a huff.

Naruto pulled out a slip of paper, scribbling on it for a moment, then handing it to Sasuke. "For later," he said, smirking.

Sakura snatched it from Sasuke, stuffing it in one of her many pockets. "No. No explosive seal trading!"

"But Sakura-chan," Naruto whined.

Sakura promptly whacked him over the head. "No buts!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, walking away from the pair. "Come on, we're gonna be late."

* * *

Naruto walked into the classroom, feeling quite proud of himself. He'd passed! Even if it wasn't exactly… Conventional.

"Naruto!" Sakura said loudly. "You passed!"

Naruto blushed slightly, nodding. "Yep!"

"Did you blow anything up?" Sasuke asked, as a way of greeting.

Naruto shook his head sadly. "No, just paralyzing seals."

"Aww, darn," Sasuke said, drooping slightly.

"Aww, good!" Sakura corrected, hands on her hips as she scolded Sasuke. She wasn't going to hit him, she was a bit too in love with him to do that, but she could scold him like he was a disobedient child.

"Alright, settle down." Iruka walked into the room, causing all the students to rush to their seats and close their mouths. "The teams are as follows."

"You think we'll be on a team together?" Naruto asked Sasuke and Sakura.

"No offense meant to you Naruto, but yeah. You passed in a weird way, making you the dead last. Sasuke-kun and I are the top students."

Naruto nodded wisely at Sakura's words. She was probably correct.

"Team 7 is Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka said, paling slightly as he realized the explosive trio was on a team together. "I send my condolences to your Sensei," he muttered under his breath.

"Why does he send condolences to our sensei?" Naruto whispered to Sakura.

"It means he's sorry our sensei got us," Sakura whispered back.

"And finally, Team 13, Rumi Aburame, Shinta Nara-Yamanaka, and Katana," Iruka finished, placing the scroll on his desk. "You are released for lunch, your sensei will pick you up after lunch."

Sakura pulled out her lunch, then pulled out a second one, setting it in front of Naruto. "Come on, let's go find somewhere to eat lunch."

Naruto grinned, grabbing the lunch and following Sasuke and Sakura out of the classroom.

They found a spot on a bench, the same one they'd eaten on yesterday, and sat down. Naruto, of course, inhaled his lunch in thirty seconds flat, then, while Sasuke and Sakura ate their lunches like normal people, he pulled out a scroll, and started drawing explosives. Y'know, like a normal kid would do when they're bored.

"Don't draw explosives," Sakura said immediately. "We don't want to blow up the school."

"Aww, c'mon," Naruto whined.

Sakura sighed, finishing her lunch. "Come on, let's go back inside."

Sasuke finished up his lunch too, throwing away the inedible bits. With Sakura in the lead, the three walked back into the academy.

They walked in the door and noted the Jonin that were already there. One of them, a woman with long dark hair pulled into a high ponytail with bangs covering her forehead, waved at them cheerfully, then went back to talking to one of the other female jonin.

"You think she's our Jonin sensei?" Sasuke asked Sakura and Naruto as they sat down.

"Nah, to happy to see us," Sakura decided. "Huh, there is one less jonin then there are teams. Someone seems to have not shown up yet. Wonder who's sensei it is."

"Probably ours," Naruto said, frowning. "They probably just didn't want to show up."

Sakura hit Naruto.

"OW! What was that for?" Naruto complained.

"The jonin is probably just late and was probably held up," Sakura said firmly. "And I'm sure it would be an honor to teach us."

"I'm not so sure about that," Naruto muttered darkly. For that, he got another hard bop on the head.

"Bad Naruto. No more self-deprecating stuff." Sakura continued to scold him, not noticing the rest of the kids had filed in.

"Alright. Team 10, you're with me," A male jonin said, a cigarette sticking out of his mouth.

The explosive trio watched as all but one of the other jonin led their teams out of the room.

The female Jonin was looking around, an irate look on her face. "If Kakashi isn't here in the next four seconds, I'm taking his genin and making a team of 7." She said it loud enough that Kakashi, who was in the hall, heard her. He frantically appeared in the doorway. "Ah, there you are, you closet pervert."

"I hate you," Kakashi grumbled.

The six genin still seated stared at the two jonin.

"So, which one of you is our teacher?" Naruto asked bluntly.

"The silver-haired idiot is your teacher, I'm afraid," the female jonin said, whacking Kakashi on the back of the head. "My name's Akiko, nice to meet you."

Sakura smiled politely, while Sasuke looked out a window and grunted, and Naruto waved enthusiastically.

"Don't kill Kakashi, would'cha? That's my job." Akiko smirked, grinning at Kakashi. "Now, Kakashi, be a good dog summoner, take the children off somewhere, and get to know them. Oh, and you will come to dinner with Asuma and Kurenai if I have to threaten you with a windmill shuriken."

Kakashi laughed nervously. "Alright, my cute little genin, meet me on the roof!" He disappeared in a swirl of leaves, probably out the open window of the classroom.

Akiko smirked. "Alright, Rumi, Shinta, Katana, if you don't mind, I'm gonna play with my ex for a moment. Explosive trio, come over here and hold on. We're gonna shunshin to the roof. It's what Kakashi did, by the way."

The explosive trio exchanged glances but obeyed the crazy woman. She took hold of them, and the four shunshined to the roof. She disappeared right afterward, probably to get her own Genin.

"Of course she did," Kakashi muttered, despondent. "I have no peace and quiet with her around."

**(A/N) Yeah, I'm really sorry for Kakashi… He's so dead with these three, the two damage, and the one damage control. Yes, the Uchiha massacre still happened, but Naruto helped Sasuke recover, and Sakura joined the two after she played damage control a few times. HCR, the story going up tomorrow, is in the same universe as this one. As such, I'm not going to be including most of those Jonin talks present in Half Clans and Rejects (HCR, for short). Akiko's there, so it's not necessary to put it twice. I'm assuming you people (or lack thereof) don't need the same conversation twice. As I'm trying to sync up with HCR, this jumps all the way to them receiving their team assignments. Other stuff happened the same, but Naruto told Sasuke and Sakura about his promotion as soon as he got it. Standard Naruto stuff. Oh, one note on Sakura's appearance, she keeps her pretty hair both shorter and tied into a braid so it's out of the way. She's had her hair singed a few too many times to care. Everyone else looks about the same though. As for Sakura's personality, she's a lot more willing to stand up to Sasuke, mostly out of necessity. She still has her silly crush, but it's buried underneath the irritation of him blowing stuff up. The other fangirls are still fangirls, but they're more subdued in favor of not incurring Naruto's wrath cause they hurt Sakura. He has her crush on her still, but again, annoyance with not being able to blow stuff up trumps that. Basically, romance is kinda there, but varying degrees of annoyance cover it up. **


	2. Kami, I Hope we Didn't Blow up Kakashi

**(A/N) To get this straight, I suppose you can just read this one and not read Half Clans and Rejects, but you'll get a bit more of the story if you also follow Akiko's story. I'm attempting to make sure the two line up, so one or the other is not too far ahead. **

"Alright, introduce yourselves," Kakashi said with a long-suffering sigh.

Sasuke grunted, but began. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I like high powered fire jutsu and large explosions. I can use medical ninjutsu, and I'm best a healing burns caused by fire and explosions. I plan on killing my brother, hopefully by blowing him up."

Naruto grinned. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I want to be Hokage, and make really big explosions! I also wanna test if the Kyuubi's chakra is explosive and if it can be used to make explosive tags."

Sakura sighed, facepalming. "My name is Sakura Haruno. The two idiots over there are my friends and I keep them from blowing up Konoha. I know medical ninjutsu, and also specialize in burns. I don't like Ino-pig, and when the boys decide to put fire elemental chakra into explosive tags. I'm the only sane person here."

"You assume my level of sanity?" Kakashi asked, fake hurt.

Sakura gave him a deadpan stare. "Yes, I do. If you dated Akiko, you can't be very sane."

"And we've known her for about two minutes," Sasuke added. Not looking insulted or surprised in the least.

"Why don't you just meet me at training ground 7 tomorrow at 8?" Kakashi offered faintly.

Naruto grinned happily. "Sure Sensei!"

Kakashi decided it was best to just shushin off the roof, leaving the three there.

"See you tomorrow I guess," Sakura said, shaking her head. "Come on boys, let's go back down all those stupid stairs."

They showed up at 8 o'clock, and to their surprise, Kakashi was already there. He was glancing around nervously, clutching a book to his chest. When he noticed them, he carefully tucked the book away into a pouch. "Alright, your task is simple, get these bells from me." Kakashi held up two bells.

Sakura tilted her head at the bells. "Is there a reason? And are there boundaries in place?"

"If you don't get a bell, you go back to the academy," Kakashi said, eye-smiling.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Kakashi. "Explosives?"

"Low grade. We aren't going to kill him." Sakura interrupted whatever Kakashi was going to say.

"I was going to say, use what you have. Come at me with the intent to kill, or you won't get a bell."

Sakura glared at the two boys, who were giving her puppy dog eyes. "Low grade. No killing Sensei. Or leveling Konoha."

Kakashi paled slightly. Maybe he shouldn't have told them to come at him with intent to kill. "Your test begins now," he said, attempting a flat tone. He wasn't sure if it came across correctly though. "You have until noon."

It didn't come across correctly. All three genin realized he was nervous, and evil grins grew on Sasuke and Naruto's faces, while Sakura looked at him with pity.

Naruto's grin only widened as he pulled out one of his tags, before throwing it on the ground in front of them, and running off, Sakura and Sasuke behind him.

Sakura tried to dart through the foliage as quietly as possible when she was separated from her team. She noticed them on the other side of a clearing, their heads together. They were drawing a seal at the same time, and it worried her. She frowned at the image, squinting real hard. Hm, that seal isn't one of the approved low tier ones. That's a rather big indicator. "Kai!" She shouted, locking her fingers together. The image faded, and she simply stood still, listening for the inevitable explosion.

Sure enough, the sound of an explosion rippled out across the forest. She began running, heading toward the source of the explosion. The boys had better not have combined an explosion with a fire jutsu.

They had. She could tell because of the scorched ground. It was too spread out to be just an explosion, and too weak to just be one of Sasuke's fire jutsu.

"Boys, what did I say about combing fire jutsu and explosions?"

"We had to," Naruto protested, almost entirely underground next to Sasuke, who was in a similar position. Only their heads were above ground.

"Alright, Sasuke-kun, Naruto, substitution jutsu out of there, would you?" Sakura sighed. Both boys disappeared, then walked back into the clearing. "Alright, we can't beat him on our own without leveling Konoha and killing him. There fore, we have to work together."

"I'll take half a bell," Naruto volunteered.

"They aren't going to separate us," Sakura said flatly. "They know better than that. If they don't want Konoha leveled by accident because one of you wasn't obeying the rules I set in place, they'll keep us together. Also, since when have you heard of two genin and a jonin as a team?"

"Now that I think about it, no, I haven't," Sasuke said, thinking hard.

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno, I was just chased by ANBU, not any teams."

Sakura sighed at the mention of Naruto's pranking days. She'd put a stop to it, of course, and the ANBU were grateful to her. She looked at him expectantly.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"Finish your camoflague seal yet?"

Naruto's grin turned foxy. "Oh yes, all complete. Proven to be able to fool most Chuunin and some jonin."

Sakura smirked at Naruto as he placed a seal in each of their hands. "Place on clothes and activate?"

"The seal will transfer to the fabric, so maybe place it on the inside of your jacket," Naruto advised.

Sakura sighed but placed the seal on the inside lining of the jacket she was wearing. She'd taken to wearing one with storage seals on the inside of the pockets because she frequently needed to confiscate certain seals from the boys. She'd already confiscated a few that were high tier, plus one that shot lightning. And a few other weirder ones. In one of her inside pockets, she had a couple of seals that were helpful. Like a few more storage seals. And one that was a henge, but the henge didn't wear off unless you removed the seal.

Sasuke smirked triumphantly, disappearing into the foliage. Sakura and Naruto quickly followed, locating Kakashi. Naruto stuck an explosive tag to the ground next to the distracted Jonin and snuck back to Sakura and Sasuke. Naruto and Sasuke exchanged pyromaniac grins, and Naruto blew up the tag.

Sakura's first thought: 'Kami, I hope we didn't kill our sensei.'

**(A/N) Got you! Kakashi shouldn't be dead. Probably. **


	3. Healing Kakashi (Kami knows he needs it)

**(A/N) Right, So, Sakura's just wearing a jacket over her normal clothes, the same color as her shorts. It has a lot of extra pockets on it, all with storage seals lining the inside, courtesy of Naruto and a ninja tailor that sewed the seals into the inner lining. Sasuke also isn't wearing white as a complimenting color, he's wearing dark grey instead. All his pants ended up dark grey anyway, cause of soot and stuff. Naruto is still wearing Kill-Me-Orange. Despite Sakura's protests. **

As the smoke cleared, Kakashi was left standing there, a bit charred, but mostly intact. Maybe he was worse then he looked, cause he almost immediately fell over, passing out.

Sakura sighed, catching him and lowering him to the ground slowly so he didn't hurt himself. She placed his head on the ground, then her hands lit up green with healing jutsu. "Sasuke-kun, get over here. You blew him up, you can help heal him."

Sasuke obediently walked over, and his hands lit up with green light.

Snickering sounded from behind them. "You blew up Kakashi?"

As Sakura and Sasuke were busy, Naruto turned to the new arrivals. "Yes, we blew him up."

Akiko started outright laughing, even as she went over to kneel next to Kakashi. "Thought this might happen. Katana, get over here and help heal my poor ex-boyfriend."

Katana nodded, walking over and joining the other three in healing the charred Kakashi.

Naruto turned his attention to the other people that had come. "So, you guys heard the explosion?"

Shinta nodded lazily. "I'm sure the entire village did. You were just short of leveling the entire training ground."

Naruto blushed. "It was a mishap. I grabbed the wrong low yield tag. I accidentally grabbed one that's on the higher end of low yield."

"S-So, you h-have a classification s-system?" Hinata asked, stumbling over her words.

Naruto nodded excitedly. "Sakura-chan came up with it! Low yield is the ones that are little more than smoke producers, to ones that can level a single training field. Middle yield is the ones that are predicted to be able to level the entire forest of death, to ones that are predicted to be able to destroy areas that are the four Hokage faces across squared. High Yield is everything else! Including the stuff that is predicted to be able to destroy all of Konoha and stuff that is predicted to be able to destroy islands."

"The middle and high yield measurements were labeled as predicted to be able to destroy," Rumi noted.

"Yeah, well, we can't exactly test them," Naruto admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "Killing everyone in Konoha and leveling the place is frowned upon."

"Gosh, you don't say," Rumi muttered.

Kiba frowned speculatively at the Aburame. "Was that sarcasm?"

"Yes, Inuzuka," Shinta replied. "That was the magical thing known as sarcasm."

"The name's Kiba!" Kiba barked. At his side, Akamaru barked as well.

"I know," Shinta said, not bothering to look at him.

"Alright, we can go find some lunch," Akiko said, walking towards them.

Naruto grinned. "Where we going?"

"I heard you like ramen," Akiko replied, smirking.

"Of course I do!" Naruto shouted.

Sakura sighed. "Naruto, if you start a monologue on how much you like ramen again, I will punch you into next week. Kakashi can recover while you're out."

Akiko rubbed Naruto's head, ruffling his hair. "Alright, you'd better avoid the monologuing, your teammate looks serious.

With that Akiko headed off, leaving the blond with his two friends.

"You know that was too high of a yield for that, right?" Sakura asked, looking at him with her 'scolding' expression.

Naruto nodded. Maybe if he accepted the scolding and didn't protest, he'd get off without being grounded. Or on timeout.

Sasuke nodded, as whenever Sakura was talking to one of them, it probably applied to the other as well. And, like Naruto, he didn't want to be grounded. Or put on timeout.

Sakura sighed. Thank Kami she had managed to strike the fear of Kami into their thick heads before they managed to get too powerful. They lived in fear of truly angering her, and it was good. That way, she could keep them from doing stupid stuff. The two were not prodigies by any means, but they were powerful, and she was hard-pressed to keep up with them. From tree-walking to kunai floating, she had trained her chakra control to the point that she was no doubt going to be a medic-nin and a genjutsu master. Sasuke did have potential as a medic, but would most likely specialize in ninjutsu and taijutsu. As for Naruto, the same thing. He had no potential as a medic, too much chakra to ever have that level of chakra control, but he would no doubtedly become a ninjutsu and fuinjutsu specialist. He was progressing rapidly in his fuinjutsu studies, and Sakura guessed it was because, at least in part, of his heritage.

Sakura had been curious about the two boys that had dragged her into their schemes, mostly as damage control, and the only person who could handle all the diplomatic stuff. She'd researched into both of their last names, and parents.

For Sasuke, she'd found exactly what she'd expected. A clan of people specializing in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. However, Sasuke had no intention of going into genjutsu, as in his opinion, it wasn't fun or flashy enough. Oh, and his brother specialized in it. That had helped.

For Naruto, she'd first off found his birth records, which placed his birthday on the day of the Kyuubi attack, then found his mother, Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Hot Habanero. His father wasn't difficult, as once she realized that Naruto looked nothing like Kushina, except in his face and temperament, she realized that all she had to do, was find a male who looked just like Naruto. She'd first gone through the civilian records, if only to assure herself that his father wasn't a civilian, although, with chakra reserves like his, there was little chance his father was a civilian, then through the ninja records. She hadn't found anything there either, then realized that the Hokage records were kept in a separate room. They wouldn't let her in there, but there were plenty of history books with the Hokage's pictures. Not that she needed them, once she came to the conclusion that his dad had to be a Hokage, there were a couple of seconds of narrowing down. First and Second Hokages died too early to be his father, and the Third Hokage was far too old. That left the Fourth Hokage, who, when she checked, actually looked a lot like Naruto. Neon blond hair and bright blue eyes were clearly something he'd gotten from his father, Minato Namikaze.

Of course, she'd went and asked the Hokage about it, and had gotten the truth. He'd asked her how she'd figured it out, to which she asked how no one else had. The Fourth Hokage and Naruto were basically clones of each other. With a couple of slight differences. She'd asked when he was intending to tell Naruto, and got the response of "when he makes Chunin."

She'd asked him why he didn't have his father's surname, and he gave her a flat look and told her to come to her own conclusions.

It hadn't taken her long to figure it out. Minato Namikaze was hated in a lot of the other nations, especially Iwa because he'd killed a lot of them by using his signature Jutsu, which she'd also looked at, and found out that Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage, had created the jutsu. That, and the Shadow clone jutsu Naruto had found when he 'borrowed' the Forbidden Scroll. Because Lord Fourth had been hated in a lot of the nations, they would've happily taken any chance to assassinate his son. Lord Third had wanted Naruto to be able to defend himself before anyone actually realized he was The Yellow Flash's son.

She, of course, had told Naruto as soon as she was sure. He was ecstatic to know who his parents had been and agreed to keep the last name Uzumaki, at least until he was old enough, and powerful enough to handle any assassination attempts thrown at him. Personally, Sakura was of the opinion that Naruto could defend himself perfectly fine now, especially with the rate he was improving in fuinjutsu.

"Is something wrong Sakura?" Naruto asked later, shaking her out of her thoughts.

"Huh? No, why do you ask?"

"You've been quieter than normal, barely responding to anything," Sasuke replied, shrugging noncommittally. "Naruto literally asked if he could draw up an explosive tag to show Akiko-sensei, and you just grunted slightly. He, of course, took it as permission and proceeded to show Akiko-sensei one of the low yield explosive tags. He didn't set it off of course, but still. Akiko-sensei has it now, said something about showing it to the other Jounin."

Sakura sighed. Well, at least Naruto didn't have it now. She had enough explosive tags on hand as it was. She didn't need one more. Or any more. Maybe they'd get a mission outside the village sometime soon, and she'd be able to use, or get the boys to use, some of the tags. Maybe soon.

**(A/N) This ran a little long. Huh. Well, Sakura's inner monologue hopefully cleared up a few things, showing a bit more about what the trio knows. For Sakura finding out Naruto's parentage, well, it wasn't exactly well hidden… **


	4. Traps and Pranks

**(A/N) D-ranks abound! The explosive trio is aware of D-ranks, and know that they're going to have to do them. They are resigned to their fate. On the topic of Sasuke's personality, as a kid, he was more of a happy and bubbly kid. Naruto and Sakura managed to keep him from going emo. So, this is a more grown-up version of Sasuke's personality as a kid. Less Emo and sulky**

Naruto arrived right on time for whatever they were doing with the team that day. Sakura and Sasuke had already arrived, and based on the fact that Sakura looked half asleep, Naruto guessed she'd been up earlier than him. Kakashi wasn't there, so Naruto decided to start setting up traps. He decided that Akiko had threatened him to be on time yesterday, so that meant Kakashi had to learn to be on time on his own. He'd get pranked ruthlessly if he didn't show up on time. Too bad his team had a sealing specialist, one who was really good at pranks and traps.

Naruto darted around the clearing, occasionally getting Sakura or Sasuke to do something when it had to be placed up higher than he could reach. He didn't quite trust his tree walking abilities to the degree he'd use them with pranks, but he figured that two people who knew medical ninjutsu had to be good enough at it. Which, of course, they were. Usually, Sasuke was more willing to help then Sakura, but Sakura could be convinced to help in situations where the victim really deserved it. Which happened a lot more than expected. It was also the case this time, as Kakashi had made them get up early, and was late. Therefore, he got to be pranked.

As soon as the Explosive trio ran out of traps they could set, mostly for lack of materials, (Naruto vowed he would bring enough trapping material to trap the entire field and occupy them for three hours at minimum next time) they settled down in the middle of the field, pulling out different things they had been working on in their own time.

Sakura unsealed a big medical scroll from her jacket sleeve, settling down on the side of one of the posts and opening it. Despite the fact that the scroll was much larger than her sleeve, and indeed about the size of her torso, she carried it everywhere, in the seal, just in case she needed something to read.

Sasuke began reading a new jutsu scroll, he'd been trying to get more fire jutsu down, entirely for more firepower. He also started carrying around jutsu scrolls, just in case.

Naruto began drawing a new seal. He was hoping that the seal would suck chakra from the target, maybe he'd get to try it against Kakashi, he had plenty of chakra to spare, right?

When Kakashi finally arrived, about 20 minutes after the kids had finished trapping the area so securely, they couldn't get out of it without setting off a trap or two.

Kakashi was quickly doused in paint and glitter, even going so far as flour. A couple of markers swung down, aiming right for his face. Suddenly, a rope closed around his ankle, tugging him off the ground, and right into the path of the markers. Kakashi quickly rolled up, the markers missing him. He tried slashing at the rope, only to find that there was no rope there. He wasn't entirely sure how he was being held up by his ankle, but it was impressive nevertheless. Another thing came at him, but no matter how hard he tried dodging it, it ended up stuck to the back of his neck, then it fluttered to the ground, completely blank. Kakashi was worried. It probably wasn't empty when it stuck to him, and that meant he- his train of thought was paused as he began floating, only tethered to a nearby tree with that invisible rope.

Naruto began cackling as he jumped up to place the seal he had just finished on Kakashi and activated it. Kakashi immediately felt a drain on his reserves, not large, but certainly there.

"Alright Sensei, have you learned your lesson, or do we need to pull out the explosive tags?" Sakura asked, all honeyed sweetness. "Or perhaps that lightning seal I have stored in my pocket. Very volatile, which is why the boys aren't carrying copies of it." She tapped her lip with one nail, the very picture of innocence.

"Really Sakura-chan!?" Naruto asked excitedly. "Testing two seals in one day!?"

Sakura grinned deviously at Kakashi. "Depends on whether our teacher here has decided that he'd rather show up on time, rather than getting to be the guinea pig for any of Naruto's new seals, on top of being pranked mercilessly."

Sasuke smirked at him. "We have you sensei, might as well admit it."

Kakashi sighed from where he was floating in the air, tethered to a tree by an invisible rope, and a chakra sucking tag attached to him. "Fine, I will endeavor to be less late next time."

Sakura's grin only widened. "Fine. Cut chakra to the seal, and you'll come down. Naruto, deactivate the tether. Kakashi-sensei, I'd advise deactivating the seal before you get too high. It is rather hard to breathe up there, and I'd hate to put you in the hospital before we even started training."

"You're mean," Kakashi grouched, folding his arms. "Why did I allow the Hokage to stick me with Genin?"

"Cutting the tether in 3… 2… 1…" Naruto made a single hand seal, and Kakashi was released, beginning to float upwards as he tried in vain to shut the seal off.

"Hint," Sakura shouted up to him. "Seals are powered with Chakra. That seal was drawn right on your back. I'd hurry up and turn it off, you're starting to get to heights that could be dangerous if fallen from."

Kakashi turned it off quite quickly after that, landing, only to be covered in more paint and glitter as he landed.

"Oh yeah, thanks for providing us a way out, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said casually, waltzing past Kakashi, taking the chakra seal off of him as he passed.

Sasuke grunted. "Hn."

Sakura smiled fondly at her boys. "Perhaps be on time tomorrow, Kakashi-sensei. Naruto's already plotting how many traps he can set up around here while we wait tomorrow. We ran out of trapping supplies today, but it probably won't happen again."

Kakashi decided he'd be on time from now on. He could always dismiss his team early. He wondered how many traps they'd set up. It was probably in a perimeter around the training ground. Darn it, other genin used this field, it would take ages to spot, let alone disable all of the traps.

Of course, it took him ages. By the time he was done, it was almost dinner time, which meant most, if not all missions were already taken. Oh well, he could just get them to do the Catch Tora mission tomorrow. They deserved it for the number of traps he had to disable. He'd gotten caught in multiple, and was currently soaking wet, covered in a mixture of sugar, flour, paint, glitter, water, and syrup. Yes, he was covered in the rather sticky mixture, but didn't really want to track it all over Konoha or get it all over his apartment so he could take a shower, so finding a nearby lake or river would be wonderful. He knew there had to be one nearby, he just had to find the stupid thing.

Meanwhile, his students watched him and giggled silently.

**(A/N) Almost feel sorry for Kakashi… Then again, he was late, and just asking for it. **


	5. Tora the Demon Cat

**(A/N) Now the D-ranks. Blasted characters for getting off track and pranking Kakashi for an entire chapter. Why don't they listen to me?**

Naruto arrived first that day, sitting down and pulling out a fuuinjutsu scroll to work on another seal.

"What'cha working on?" Sasuke asked, materializing on top of the post that Naruto was leaning against.

"Don't tell me it's an explosive tag," Sakura said, materializing on the post next to him.

"It isn't," Naruto protested, showing them the seal. "See? This bit here means container, and this bit makes it so it can contain jutsu. I just have to work out how to not let the jutsu out."

"Make a scroll for each element," Sasuke said immediately. "Then a separate one for shadow clones cause they're weird."

"Good morning my cute little Genin!" Kakashi said cheerfully, shunshining onto a nearby tree.

"Oh good, any later and we would've begun trapping the clearing," Sasuke said flatly.

Kakashi sweatdropped. "Alright, why don't we go get a D-rank."

Sakura nodded, hopping off her post. "Naruto, you can work on the seal later, come on."

"Alright," Naruto agreed reluctantly, rolling up the scroll and sealing it away into a storage seal on his sleeve. "Oh, I got it so the chakra absorbing seal should stop absorbing chakra when the person's chakra is low enough to knock them out, but not low enough to kill them."

"Oooh, maybe when we get that weird cat mission all genin complain about, we can stick that on the cat and it'll pass out," Sasuke suggested.

"Let's just place it on permanently, and we can just activated it when we need! Takes forever to catch the cat anyway, we can spend a little bit of time afterward drawing the seal onto the cat's skin," Naruto continued, oblivious to Kakashi's silent cackling. With this kind of plotting, they'd be getting every single Tora the cat mission for months.

Naruto looked up at the mission room, and sighed. "Alright, D-ranks, here we come!"

"Ah, Kakashi-san, I didn't see you yesterday, did something happen?" Iruka, who happened to be the Chuunin on duty at the time, asked. The sniggers of the three students behind the jounin were enough to tell him what happened. "Alright, I'll be sure to tell Akiko what she'd forgotten yesterday. She was practically going more nuts than usual, trying to remember what she'd forgotten.

Naruto managed to pause snickering in order to say, "well, she doesn't need to worry about it any more!" Which, of course, sent him and his teammates over the edge, the three genin bursting into laughter, and leaning against each other to remain standing."

Iruka blinked. "I don't think I'll ask right now. A D-rank?"

Kakashi nodded, a sadistic smile hidden behind his mask. "Give them the Tora mission."

The three genin stopped laughing after a moment, coughing a few times.

"Already, Kakashi-sensei? We're honored," Sakura simpered.

"Right," Kakashi muttered. "Alright, let's go." He turned and walked out, while Naruto nabbed the mission scroll from Iruka.

"Alright," Sakura began. "Sasuke, find the cat. Naruto, send a clone with him, and find a good place to set up traps. Kakashi-sensei is unlikely to help, and I'll help in chasing the cat into the clearing when Sasuke finds it. Until then, I'll be helping Naruto."

The two boys nodded, and Kakashi pretended he hadn't heard anything. Sakura knew for a fact he had heard her, he wasn't a jounin for nothing, and didn't have the title Sharingan no Kakashi to drop it the second he got it.

Sasuke grinned at them, then split off as Naruto made a clone to follow him.

Sakura glanced at Kakashi, seeing his nose in his book. She sighed, and let Naruto lead the way off into the forests surrounding Konoha, where the cat was hiding.

They found a clearing, and her and Naruto began setting up traps. Naruto set up the seal oriented ones, as most of the ones she had were dangerous, and really shouldn't be used on a cat. Or an allied human. Opponent humans were fair game. She set up a few of the wire ones, the ones that Naruto didn't have the patience to learn or set up.

Naruto abruptly stiffened, then finished his trap quickly. "Sakura, he's west about four baby explosive tags."

Sakura frowned, tying one last knot in her trap, and racing off. They'd developed an entirely new system of measure because Naruto had some serious problems with the normal measurements. Didn't help at all that the teachers for that were sabotaging him spectacularly. The teachers didn't like it, but screw them. They weren't teaching well anyway.

Sakura found Sasuke trying to herd the cat in a random direction, that happened to be right towards her. She dodged the irate cat's claws, and began helping Sasuke herd the cat towards the variety of traps they'd set up.

They caught the cat, ultimately it was one of her wire traps that held it down, allowing Naruto to slap a chakra absorbing seal on it. As soon as it fell asleep, Naruto freed it, then began drawing on its underbelly.

A few minutes later, he stood up happily, the unconscious cat in his hands. "All done!"

"And in just two hours too, I'm impressed," Kakashi said mildly, appearing next to a tree. One of the earlier traps activated, dousing him in orange glitter.

"Oops," Naruto said innocently. "Forgot to disable the traps."

"Should probably do that now. I got the kitty," Sasuke said, taking the cat from Naruto and cradling it gently.

Sakura almost cooed at the sight, but moved to disable the traps she had set up.

Soon enough, they were on their way, Kakashi finding out that no, the glitter did not come out. Not easily anyway.

"Try some detergent," Naruto advised Kakashi. "And a lotta soap."

Sakura snickered behind her hand. It was her fault the glitter was so sticky, after all, what was the best way to get back at Ino, then covering all of her clothes in the sticky, bright orange glitter? And, of course, it had to stay in for at least a week. When on skin, it could last almost an entire two days. With vicious scrubbing, of course.

"Oh, hey Team 7!" Akiko shouted. She maneuvered over to walk beside them, her team falling in behind her like a line of baby ducks. "Ah, Tora mission? How'd you get the cat unconscious?"

"We sapped its chakra. It now has a permanent chakra sapping seal on it, so we can activate it whenever we need to catch it," Sakura explained. "Going into the mission office?"

Akiko nodded. "Yeah. Turning in your first D-rank of the day?" Kakashi continued walking, hoping to high heaven that she wouldn't notice the glitter. She did. "Oooh, Kakashi, orange glitter, huh? Have a run in with tiny terror here?" She ruffled Naruto's hair affectionately.

Sakura snickered, but managed to get Naruto to turn in both the unconscious cat, and the scroll. She grabbed a different one, barely looking at it. "See you later, Akiko."

She nodded absently, looking over the missions.

**(A/N) Ah, orange glitter. Fun. **


	6. C-rank to Wave

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said randomly, four months later.

Kakashi turned to her. "Yes, Sakura?"

"We want a C-rank soon or we trap the field again."

Kakashi paled, but his mask hid it well. They still caught it. "I'm sure the mission office has a minor C-rank we can do."

"Yay!" Naruto cheered, "We can finally use those really really good storage seals I can draw up!"

"Naruto," Sasuke said, "We use them anyway."

Naruto frowned, pulling out a seal. "No, the people storing ones!" He proudly showed the seal to Kakashi, who inspected it, then pulled a nearly identical seal out of his weapons pouch.

"I see," Kakashi muttered, checking over Naruto's seal carefully. "This is actually better than the one sold in the supply shops." Kakashi decided to get Naruto in for a chat with the Hokage about supplying ANBU with seals. It would be much appreciated, as with Kakashi not around to copy the seals, with all the dangerous missions they went on, they simply couldn't afford prisoner transport seals like this, as they tended to burn out after a single-use.

"Well, yeah, all supply shop seals suck," Naruto said casually.

"If you can keep it just in this team, I'm sure the Hokage would be open to allowing you to have a secondary source of income, but we'll have to discuss it with him." Kakashi shushed them as he led them to the mission room, only to find the Hokage there. "Lord Third, I believe my team is ready for a C-rank."

"We do have a C-ranked escort mission," the Hokage said, selecting the scroll. "If you wanted something else, you should've been earlier, Akiko's team came in and took the other minor C-rank."

Kakashi nodded. "We'll take the escort mission."

"Send in the client," the Hokage called, the door opening slightly after. An older man with a sake bottle in his hand walked in.

"These are just a bunch of snot-nosed brats!" He announced. "That short one, is he even a ninja?"

Naruto looked up from where he was drawing another seal and pouted at the man. Then he went back to work, Sakura keeping an eye on the seal. She didn't see any explosive symbols, so it was probably safe. But, better safe than sorry, so she kept an eye on it.

Naruto finished it with a swirl in the middle, then walked right up to the client, and stuck it on his arm, activating it as he did so.

The client's eyes cleared, and he didn't seem drunk anymore. "What did you do to me kid?" He asked, staring at him astonished.

"I turned off the alcohol. Sakura-chan says it's bad for you," Naruto informed him.

Sakura blinked. The hospital would kill for seals like that. And so would the majority of the Shinobi population. They could get drunk, then be sober within seconds.

Kakashi knew exactly what Sakura was thinking. Mostly because he was thinking it himself. It would be a useful seal to have. For anyone. He nodded to his Genin. "We leave tomorrow morning. 9:00. Come packed and ready for a month-long trip. Lord Third, may I have a chat with you for a moment?"

Kakashi's genin nodded, darting out the door, Tazuna following almost dazedly.

"What did you want to speak to me about, Kakashi?" The Hokage asked, watching him.

Kakashi decided that it was fine having the other shinobi in here, they were all chuunin or above, they'd be fine hearing it. "Naruto has created a prisoner transport seal that is miles above the one currently sold in the supply shops. I wanted to discuss setting up a system so he could have a secondary income from the seals he makes. I know the ANBU are going to want to get their hands on as many of these transport seals as possible, they can most certainly be used multiple times. And they're more stable and can store anything, not just humans."

Iruka whistled under his breath. "I know most people would kill to get their hands on those. Prisoner transport seals are useful but ridiculously expensive."

"And with his shadow clones, he can create thousands of seals in just a little while," Kakashi added.

The Hokage nodded. "You make a good point. I'll talk to him after the mission and see about setting him up as our main seal supplier if we can."

Kakashi nodded. "Out of curiosity, what mission did Akiko and her team take?"

"They took a delivery mission, out to Rice. Nothing should go wrong. Like yours," Iruka said. "Do try and avoid blowing Wave up though, it would be highly ill-advised."

Kakashi nodded. "I will endeavor to keep them from pranking the living kami out of the inhabitants as well."

"Perhaps introduce Sakura and Sasuke to practicing medical ninjutsu on fish," Lord Third suggested. "And set Naruto on a seal that makes medical chakra when you put chakra into it. He'd have some fun with that one."

Kakashi nodded, filing those ideas away for later. "I will keep those in mind. Good day, Lord Third, Iruka-san."

"Have a good day, Kakashi," Lord Third replied, adjusting a scroll on the desk.

Kami apparently didn't want Kakashi to get a break because he ran into Akiko right outside the tower.

"Hello, Kakashi, how are the little hellions?" She asked, greeting him.

"Hello Akiko," he replied tiredly. "The hellions are fine, we got a C-rank today."

Akiko bobbed her head. "You heard we got one as well?"

Kakashi nodded. "To the land of Rice?"

"I have a secondary mission to get some intel," Akiko said, sighing. "My genin will be staying with the client for a few days while I do some scouting and poking around."

"Be careful," Kakashi advised.

"Of course," Akiko replied, smiling at him fondly.

**(A/N) *Starts cackling* *subsides to giggles* *grinning cheekily* Wasn't that sweet. Yes, I did all of those things, in that order. Ending with the cheeky smile, which is most certainly still on my face. *smirks* **


	7. Demon Drothers

Team 7 met up at the front gate. Akiko's team was there as well, similarly packed.

Akiko's team nodded to them, then went down a different path Team 7 was planning to take.

"Alright," Kakashi said, his book nowhere in sight. "Sasuke, you in front. Sakura, Naruto, you're on either side of Tazuna. I'll be behind."

"Sensei?" Sakura asked, about 30 minutes into their travel. "Isn't Wave closer to Kiri?"

Kakashi blinked at her. Then did some calculations. "Maybe, why?"

"Why didn't this mission go to Kiri?" Sakura tilted her head, glancing between Kakashi and Tazuna.

"Well, I believe Kiri is in the middle of a civil war. They wouldn't want to take a mission like this. I doubt they could spare any shinobi for something of this low of a rank."

Sakura nodded. "And if Kiri wasn't in a civil war?"

"Kiri is known for its ruthlessness, one of its nicknames is the Bloody Mist," Kakashi explained, nodding sagely.

Sakura tilted her head. "I thought Kiri was known for its swordsmen?"

"Like the seven swordsmen," Sasuke agreed, glancing back at them. "Samehada is the second coolest of the swords."

"What's the first coolest?" Kakashi asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting to ask it anyway.

"Shibuki, clearly," Naruto replied this time, grinning back at his sensei. "It has explosives!"

Tazuna sweatdropped nervously. He had two pyros on the team protecting him? Would his bridge even survive this?

Sakura sighed. "I, personally like Samehada and Nuibari, but as usual, the boys go with the explosives."

"Interesting choices," Kakashi agreed. "I know Akiko would love to get her hands on Kiba."

Sakura thought for a moment. "The two that are imbued with lightning?"

Kakashi nodded. "The crazy lady already does it with her giant shuriken, so I'll be happy if she never manages to get her hands on them."

Sakura snickered. "Alright, Kakashi-sensei." She glanced ahead of them and tilted her head. "Hey, Kakashi, could I take front for a moment?"

Kakashi nodded, spotting what she had, a puddle by the side of the road.

She grinned, sticking her hands in her pockets, and switching places with Sasuke. She pulled her hands out of her pockets, a paper hidden in her fingers. She skipped a few paces, swinging her arms so the paper she was holding fell right into the puddle. She waited until they were a few meters ahead of the puddle, then turned back, grinned, and activated the seal.

Lightning shot from the seal, electrocuting the ninja hidden in the puddle, knocking them out quite thoroughly. She smirked, walking over and pulling out ninja wire to tie them up.

Once finished, she stepped back. "Alright, we have two Kiri missing-nin, who wants to take a swing at them first?"

Kakashi sweatdropped at the two boy's excitement. "Maa, maa, maybe get information out of them before we blow them up?"

Sakura smiled sweetly at him. "Oh, the Demon brothers of Kiri. They're in the bingo book as chuunin level opponents. I would assume they're attacking Tazuna, as none of us are in the bingo book, and you, Kakashi, are at least A-ranked. They wouldn't attack you directly, that's just stupid."

Kakashi shrugged. "Perhaps ask them first, then we can jump to conclusions."

Sakura sighed. "Fine. They'll wake up soon, it wasn't that much lightning."

Kakashi raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Not that much? Who wants to bet Akiko picked that surge of lightning chakra? Her team's path isn't that far away from ours and runs parallel for quite some time."

Sakura shrugged. "That was the only lightning producing seal I didn't destroy. And for good reason. Trust me when I say, that was not that much lightning."

Kakashi sweatdropped, but dropped it as the Demon brothers began to stir. "I'll be right back. You three protect Tazuna. You can do that, right?"

"I managed to one-hit KO chuunin level opponents with one of Naruto's seals. We're fine," Sakura assured him, another tag coming out of her pocket to remain between her fingers.

Kakashi sighed heavily, and nodded, taking the Demon brothers deeper into the forest.

He came back out about five minutes later, slight bloodstains on his vest and sleeves. The three genin decided not to ask where the Demon brothers had gone. Kakashi was glad they didn't.

"So, Kakashi-sensei, get anything from them?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi nodded, leveling a glare at Tazuna. "It appears that someone lied to us. This is no C-rank. We should be going back to Konoha."

"I had to do it! That was all the money we had, and even that took years to save up!" Tazuna cried desperately. "Gato is sucking our land dry, and we have no hope. The bridge will fix that."

Sakura sighed, her expression softening. "C'mon Kakashi-sensei, we'll manage, after all, you're a jounin, we can handle this mission. Hopefully without blowing Wave to kingdom come."

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "We got this, right Sasuke?"

Sasuke nodded emphatically. "If we got you in our traps, we can catch enemy ninja, right?"

"Just adapt the paint, syrup, water, and flour throwing seals to throw kunai and shuriken," Naruto agreed, pulling the puppy eyes on Kakashi. "We can handle it, let's continue!"

Kakashi sighed. They would be the death of him. "Fine, we can continue. But once Wave is back on its feet, you will repay Konoha for however high of a rank this mission reaches."

Tazuna nodded quickly, almost frantically. "Of course Hatake-san."

Kakashi eye smiled at him, and made shooing motions. "Onward, we have a bridge to see completed."

**(A/N) The wave mission is officially underway.**


	8. Zabuza Momochi

**(A/N) Alright, this goes for all of my stories. I will not be updating anything during the month of November. I will be doing National Writing Month, or NanoWrimo, or just Nano, and need to concentrate on what I'm writing. I'll begin updating again as soon as it's December. To be clear, this does have slight veins of crack, so, remember that. HCR is a bit more serious. **

Naruto was a bit jumpy, and startled, throwing a kunai into the bushes.

Sakura just sighed and parted the bushes to find a white rabbit. "It's a pet rabbit, there was someone here. They used a replacement with this rabbit."

"Rabbits are brown this time of year," Sasuke told Naruto, who looked confused.

"Down!" Kakashi yelled, and all three genin, with the practice of Naruto yelling 'down' when he set off a tag, dropped to the floor. Kakashi grabbed Tazuna, manhandling him to the ground.

A massive sword flew over their head, embedding in a tree nearby. A man landed on its handle, and Sakura made a very slight excited squeaking noise. "That's Kubikiribocho!" She whispered excitedly. "That means that guy is Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Hidden Mist!"

"Someone has done their reading, I see," Zabuza remarked.

"I always do my reading," Sakura agreed. "You were part of the Seven Swordsmen Of Kiri, but defected. You wield Kubikiribocho, the immortal sword. It can reform itself from the blood of its enemies."

Sakura jumped to her feet, pulling a tag out from her pocket and slamming it onto the ground. "Tazuna! Behind me!"

Naruto and Sasuke slapped down two more tags, Sakura putting down a forth so that her and Tazuna were trapped in a square formation of tags. Sakura put down one more in the center, then placed her hand on it, channeling chakra into it. A bright orange barrier sprung up around her and Tazuna, the boys on the outside.

"Bridgebuilder protected," Sakura reported, her face hard. She channeled a little bit more chakra into the tag she had her hand on, and a top formed on the barrier, making it into a box.

"Creative, but you missed a few people," Zabuza said.

Sakura shrugged, mouthing, "If I had tried manhandling the boys in here, they'd try and blow me up. As it is, you are the one getting blown up, I'm safe." Zabuza raised an eyebrow at her, and she smirked. "Box is soundproof from the inside, I can hear you, you can't hear me."

"Katon: Dragon's Fire!" Sasuke shouted, breathing out a white-hot stream of fire.

"Fuuinjutsu: Death of a Thousand Leaves!" Naruto shouted at the same time, a fast gust of wind coming from the seal he was holding in his hand. It intersected the Katon jutsu, and hurried it along, heating up as well, turning the core blue.

Kakashi watched in shock. When had his cute, well, kinda not so cute with the fire, little genin figured out combination ninjutsu and fuinjutsu? That was a much higher level then they should be, for just outside of the academy. Why were his genin so confusing? And why were they learning everything when he wasn't looking? Maybe it was because they were always there when he arrived, on time, he might add. Akiko had it easy with her genin.

"So, you're sending your genin at me, eh, Sharingan no Kakashi?"

Kakashi held his hands in the air. "They could have killed me one time. You do not want to get on the bad side of their traps."

Naruto started cackling, drawing Zabuza's attention to him. "What's so funny gaki?"

"That," he said innocently, just as a clone managed to tag Zabuza with a seal and activate it.

Zabuza squawked as he was dragged up into the air by his ankle, hanging there. He pulled his sword off of his back, and dispelled the Naruto clone. "How did it get that close?"

"Camouflage seal," Naruto said solemnly. "You were distracted, so it was simple!"

Sasuke cackled, and the duo started attacking. Kakashi wondered if it was cruel to have stuck them on Zabuza. He should probably save the other man. "My cute little genin, it's my turn."

Sasuke and Naruto slumped sadly. Naruto activated one more seal, an explosive on Zabuza's sword, blowing it to pieces, and retreated, going to stand next to the orange box with Sakura in it.

Kakashi, it finally being his time to shine, deactivated the seal on Zabuza's ankle, and pulled up his headband, revealing his Sharingan.

"Sharingan no Kakashi," Zabuza said, staggering slightly as the blood rushed out of his head.

Kakashi, being the nice guy he was, waited for Zabuza to get his bearings, then attacked.

It was a quick taijutsu fight, ending with Kakashi trapped in a water prison. Naruto grinned and activated the seal again, drawing Zabuza up by his ankle. Zabuza reached up and took the seal off, falling to the water.

"Took you long enough!" Sakura mouthed at him mockingly. He growled at her, and she smirked. "Did you want to be incinerated? That's what this barrier does. Incinerates anything that touches it."

Naruto grinned at Sakura, pulling out an explosive.

Sakura sighed, and nodded.

Sasuke hid behind the box, Naruto placed it on the ground between them and Zabuza, got behind the box, and blew it up.

Behind the box, they were unaffected. Kakashi was fine, but out of the prison. Zabuza… looked a bit worse for wear.

Out of nowhere, two senbon hit Zabuza in the neck. He fell like a tree, a Kiri hunter-nin coming down to keep him above water. The nin grabbed the remains of Kubikiribocho, and nodded to Kakashi, then disappeared with Zabuza.

"He's not dead," Sakura said, the orange box disappearing. "But Zabuza will be waylaid for at least a week if not two. We should get a move on."

**(A/N) I dunno, I'm tired, sue me. See you in December.**


	9. Suiton Jutsu

**(A/N) I'M BACK! BE HAPPY!**

Kakashi fainted the second the Hunter-nin was out of sight. Sasuke propped him up with a sigh.

Sakura sighed as well, taking charge. "Naruto, three clones, one henges into a stretcher. Kakashi sized stretcher, mind you."

Naruto nodded, three clones popping into existence and one turning into a stretcher that the other two picked up. Sasuke arranged Kakashi on the stretcher, and they set off.

Sakura kept a close eye out, and Naruto had clones in a swarm around them.

They made it to Tazuna's house without any problems, and once there, Sakura quickly set Kakashi up in the provided room, leaving the unconscious jounin to recover.

"Oh you poor dears," Tsunami said, hand on her chest. "It's the least we can do to feed you and allow you to rest here."

Sakura smiled politely. "Oh, we will help with collecting food, I hope you don't mind."

"You're so sweet," Tsunami said gratefully.

Naruto beamed. "Just self sufficient! And with Tazuna's story about how bad things are here, we couldn't possibly at least help a bit!"

"No worse than D-ranks," Sasuke muttered as his bit.

Kakashi woke the next day, hobbling around despite Sakura's protests.

"Now, do you know how to climb trees?" Kakashi asked.

"With, or without hands?" Sakura asked skeptically.

Kakashi drooped. "Walk on water?"

They nodded.

Now Kakashi just flat out pouted at them. "Now what am I supposed to do with you?"

Sakura's face moved to a mischievous grin. "You could show us the hand signs for a jutsu, and see if we can get them right. You wouldn't perform it, just instruct us, as your chakra reserves have not recovered yet."

Kakashi eyed her. "And you wouldn't blow yourselves up?"

Sakura's smile turned innocent. "Would you rather the boys were left to play around? At least this way, you could teach me a water jutsu to put the fires out."

Kakashi sighed, and conceded. Sakura vetoed any fire jutsu for the boys, so he handed out Suiton jutsu to all three, it would keep them busy, at the very least.

Naruto got Suiton: Tsunami's Wrath, one Kakashi had gotten from seeing Kushina use it to absolutely destroy a battlefield a few times. Including one time she used it in conjunction with a toad's oil, and Jiairya set the entire area ablaze. It was a water jutsu that required a kami ton of chakra, so was perfect for him. They were also near an ocean, so that helped a lot.

Sakura got Suiton: Water Bullets, which should let her put out fires. Kakashi was pretty sure he got that one from some random Kiri-nin. Kiri-nin were famous for their water ninjutsu, after all, and Suiton: Water Bullets was pretty simple.

Sasuke got Suiton: Water Dragon, the one Zabuza had used. Used more chakra then Sakura's, but significantly less than Naruto's. Honestly, Kakashi was pretty sure that Suiton: Tsunami's Wrath could only effectively be used by Uzumaki. Tobirama Senju had been able to use it, he knew, and maybe his brother as well, but other then that, he didn't really know of any outside of the Uzumaki clan that could use it to its fullest potential: being stuffed full of so much chakra, any normal elite ninjutsu based jounin would find themselves on the edge of death from chakra exhaustion.

Kakashi got to sit on the bridge and call suggestions down at them while he watched the bridge, and his cute little genin at the same time.

"A bit more chakra, Naruto, Sakura. Sasuke, doing good, just keep trying and it won't explode. You're treating it like a fire jutsu, and it is certainly not!"

Not that he hadn't expected that to come from his Uchiha student, fire and water were opposites, after all.

"Are you sure, sensei?" Naruto called back up. "What if I overload it?"

"You won't, in fact, this jutsu is designed to just suck up chakra, you can't overload it, trust me," Kakashi shouted down. "Just overload it with as much chakra as you can!"

Naruto frowned in concentration, doing the hand signs once again, the ocean in front of him raising up in a massive swell, creating, well, a miniature, or not so miniature, tsunami. A second and third ones rose up as well, and a truly miniature one rose up after that before the ocean calmed.

"Great! Now we just have to get you to do it on land!" Kakashi shouted down, giving a thumbs up to the boy. He couldn't really see the gesture, but smiled anyway. "Later though, just keep doing it on the water, and see if you can manage six waves!"

Naruto beamed at him, and turned back to his task.

Sakura got a mischievous grin on her face, and fired her next volley of water balls at Naruto's back, causing him to lose focus and get swept up in his own technique, disappearing underwater for a few seconds and getting washed out father out in the ocean. "Pay attention to what's going on around you!" She trilled, only to get knocked off of the surface of the water by a water dragon from Sasuke crashing into her back. "Oi!"

"You said watch your back!" Sasuke chirped, a grin on his face. She growled, and tackled him off of his feet and into the water, Naruto joining in their watery fun once he got back from where the jutsu had washed him out to sea. Er, ocean.

Kakashi wondered if he should break it up. Nah, let them have their fun. Better than the alternatives. Aka, blowing stuff up, or pestering him. Yes, let them have their fun. They may be shinobi now, but it was good to just have time off to be a kid. Even if he didn't get that, they would. The world wasn't at war for now, and life was good. Until Zabuza came back, but still.

In the end, they all trooped back to the house. Well, Kakashi hobbled, but still. Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto were soaked to the bone, and were still picking out the occasional piece of seaweed from their clothes or hair. Apparently they'd ended up in a kelp patch. On the plus side, they were all worn out, and weren't thinking of any devious plans. Also, they'd brought back fish and a rabbit Kakashi had impaled on the way, so Tsunami would be happy.

She was, and happily cooked up a few of the fish, storing the others and the rabbit in the place they stored meat.

**(A/N) Ah, water jutsu, very useful for putting out fires. Alright, so Suiton: Tsunami's Wrath is an Uzumaki made jutsu. Very made for turning the odds in their favor, ne? Also it's good for Kiri shinobi, so they use it, then pull out the Raiton jutsu. Uzumaki are very good at seals afterall, and if they don't have a seal to protect their shinobi from water transmitted Raiton jutsu, there's something wrong with them. Or a lot of things wrong with them. Whatever. I have a pair of polls up in my profile, go vote on my free update spots. **


	10. Battle of the Bridge

**(A/N) TBNKurama: TTDS is the designated shortened version. For me, anyway. **

A week later, they were all on the bridge, waiting for Zabuza to pop up. Kakashi had recovered and Naruto was watching the house, so everything was ready.

"Kakashi Hatake," Zabuza called, appearing with his apprentice by his side.

"Zabuza Momochi."

"Hello!" Sakura chirped. Tags she'd already placed down activated, and Tazuna was encased in a fuinjutsu barrier. "Try getting through that!"

The apprentice narrowed his eyes, dashing over. Sasuke met him, kunai against senbon. "You have to get through me to get to her," he growled. "Besides, taking her out will not release the barrier."

The apprentice looked rather displeased, although Sasuke couldn't be sure through the mask.

"So," Sasuke said, jumping back to form a couple hand seals. "You know we have a library, right?"

"I would assume you do," he replied in a flat voice. "Most people do."

Sasuke nodded sagely. "Right, of course. But see, our library's really big, and apparently, there are scrolls that haven't been opened since, like, the founder's era."

"You don't say," he replied, the sarcasm practically dripping from his tone.

"Whatever. So, there's this really cool thingy I wanted to try, but Sakura said no, cause apparently she thinks it'll blow up in my face if there's nothing to aim it at. So, would'cha look at that, something to aim it at!" He grinned pyromaniaclly, and the hunter did a few hand signs himself, a ring of ice mirrors rising from the water to surround Sasuke. Sasuke grinned wider, teeth bared as he took in a breath. "Katon: Solarflare!" A white-hot tongue of flame leapt out from his lips, managing to melt a hole through one of the ice mirrors.

The fake hunter-nin looked appropriately shocked, even through the mask, as the hole slowly closed.

Sasuke sighed. "Shame, looks like I'll have to pull out the explosives…"

He didn't. But Naruto did.

An explosion rocked the bridge slightly as the ice exploded inwards, sending both Sasuke and the apprentice flying across the bridge. Sasuke, who'd been expecting it, caught himself before he hit the other side of the bridge. The apprentice, who had not been expecting it, didn't quite manage to stabilize themselves before they hit the side of the bridge with a nasty crack-crunch noise.

He hissed in pain, clutching his side.

"NARUTO! BE CAREFUL!" Sakura admonished loudly from her position making sure Tazuna was safe.

"SORRY!" Naruto squawked.

Sasuke just smirked as he stood up.

Naruto quickly scurried over, placing tags on the apprentice's chest and limbs quickly and as gently as possible. "Sorry about that! Didn't think it'd be that powerful! Fluffy got excited!"

Sasuke chuckled. Only Naruto would refer to the Kyuubi as 'fluffy'. "Naruto, do that wind seal and blow away this mist, would you?"

Naruto nodded excitedly, slapping his hand down on the ground, aiming for the end of the bridge. "Fuuinjutsu: Death of a Thousand Leaves!"

The mist quickly blew away under the onslaught, revealing where Kakashi and Zabuza were trading blows, and the very end of the bridge, where a really short dude was standing at the head of a bunch of thugs.

"Hey, Kakashi!?" Naruto called, not taking his eyes off the bandits. "If, say, a really short dude had a bunch of goons behind him and was standing menacingly at the end of the bridge, and I said I wanted to fight them, what would you say?"

Zabuza and Kakashi paused in their fight to stare at him.

"I'd say that the short guy is probably Gato, so you're welcome to him, why?"

"Cause there's a short guy standing at the end of the bridge with a bunch of bandit people behind him."

Zabuza's head snapped around to glare at Gato.

Gato scoffed. "Looks like this ends here, Demon of the Mist."

Zabuza snarled. "Darn right it does! Naruto, I get the short guy. You can have the rest."

Naruto grinned savagely. "Might wanna get him quickly."

Zabuza nodded quickly, disappearing for a second before reappearing with a kunai to Gato's throat. "Here's for backstabbing me." He slit the man's throat, before removing his head in two clean cuts, and throwing the body off the side of the bridge. He brandished the head for a moment, before disappearing and reappearing next to Kakashi, where he sealed the head away.

Naruto exchanged a glance with Sasuke, who just smirked and made a few hand signs.

"What on earth do you feed them?" Zabuza hissed to Kakashi as the two genin decimated the thugs with combination wind and fire jutsu.

"Nothing," Kakashi hissed back. "Sakura does all the feeding, ask her."

"You mean you didn't do that?"

"Did you think I did? I'm not a freaking pyro!"

"Well no, but you're Hatake Kakashi, copy-nin! They had to get the jutsu from somewhere!"

"One word," Kakashi said, "Library."

"Seriously?"

"Uchiha clan library," Kakashi said, clarifying with a shrug.

"Oh, that makes sense," Zabuza admitted, staring at the two genin.

"Yeah…"

"What'cha talking about?" Sakura asked, popping up.

"Your teammates," Kakashi said, not even bothering to look startled.

"Cool," Sakura said, watching her teammates tear apart the remaining bandit. "Well, now that that's taken care of, I'm gonna go toss them in the ocean. Maybe pick up that guy on the way out though, he's currently quite paralyzed. See you at Tazuna's house!" With that, she sauntered off to where her very bloody teammates were cackling madly in the remains of their enemy.

"You're genin are insane," Zabuza decided.

"You don't say," Kakashi muttered. "I hadn't noticed."

**(A/N) Oh poor Kakashi, he really got the short end of the stick this time, didn't he. Not that it wasn't evident before. **


	11. Team 13

**(A/N) Hope you lot had a good Christmas! TBNkurama: I know, right? Very catchy. So, you guys picked a three week updating schedule, so I have the schedule up on my profile, so maybe go see that, and the poll about which of the new stories you're most curious about just from the titles. **

"I want to see you in Kiri in two months," Zabuza told his apprentice firmly.

Haku nodded. "Yes, Zabuza-sensei." Haku was stuck on a stretcher. He'd cracked a few vertebrae and severed a few nerves when he hit the side of the bridge, so Team 7 was taking him back for proper medical treatment. Haku would join Zabuza in Kiri to assist the rebellion when he was recovered.

"Don't worry, we'll take good care of him! Believe it!" Naruto shouted.

Sakura just rolled her eyes. "Or rather, the medic-nin will."

"Speaking of, Haku, you don't have too much of a problem with hospitals, right?" Kakashi asked.

Haku shook his head. "I don't."

"Good!" Kakashi chirped. "Cause you'll be spending a lot of time there."

Haku rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Don't you think I already know that?"

"Have a good trip," Zabuza said, turning and walking off.

"You too!" Sakura called after him.

The trip back was about as quiet as it ever got with Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura and Haku conversing in quiet tones about medical stuff, and a couple of water jutsu.

There was a bit of paperwork involved getting Haku into Konoha, but luckily, he wasn't known, wasn't in the Bingo Books, and hadn't actually done anything, so it was easier than it could have been.

With Haku dropped off at the hospital, Team 7 went to turn in their mission scroll.

"Ah, Team 7, just got back?" A chuunin at the missions desk asked.

Kakashi nodded, handing over the scroll, and getting the envelopes that was their pay.

"Alright, hand in your reports later please. This isn't often done, but if you wouldn't mind taking one more mission…"

"Sure!" Naruto chirped immediately. "What is it!?"

"Ah, it appears that Team 13 has misplaced their jounin sensei, and requires an escort."

"You don't just… misplace a jounin." Sakura said flatly.

"She isn't dead, if that is what you're worried about," the chuunin reassured. "She has other business that she can't afford to leave, and it isn't safe for a group of inexperienced genin to travel on their own."

"So you're sending us to collect them," Sasuke concluded.

The chuunin nodded, offering the scroll. "Do the paperwork nin a favor and complete your reports on the way. Try and be back in under two weeks, if I'm correct in assuming Kakashi will be entering you into the chuunin exams."

Kakashi nodded, accepting the scroll. "We'll be back in time."

The chuunin chuckled. "I don't doubt it. See you."

Rumi greeted them with a nod as they approached.

"Where's your sensei?" Naruto asked immediately.

"Busy elsewhere. She regrets not being able to see you." Came the smooth reply.

Katana and Shinta walked up, with their bags on their backs. Katana handed Rumi's bag to her, and it was quickly donned. "Kakashi-sensei, if I may speak to you."

Kakashi nodded, following her to the side. Once they were far enough away that they would not be overheard, Katana began.

"Akiko-sensei did request that your team not be informed, given their tendency to… not think about consequences before rushing in. She did not want them in over their heads because of her."

Kakashi nodded. "Makes sense."

Katana nodded. "Good."

"So, what is your sensei doing?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Akiko-sensei didn't tell us," Shinta drawled. "I assumed it's because it is a higher ranked mission, and therefore, out of our current clearance level."

"That would be correct," Kakashi agreed, rejoining them. "It is indeed above your clearance level as genin."

Naruto pouted. "When'll she get back?"

"Hopefully, right after we do," Kakashi mused. "In time for the Chuunin exams."

"I don't think we were going to be nominated," Shinta said. "Would be rather troublesome anyhow."

Rumi adjusted her sunglasses, but didn't say anything.

"If she does not come back for more than three months, she will be labeled MIA," Katana said, "and search parties will be mobilized, if they can find her, or her body, she will be brought back to Konoha."

"Hopefully it isn't her body," Naruto muttered, looking slightly haunted.

Katana inclined her head. "That would be unfortunate."

**(A/N) Good ending spot. Next chapter, back to Konoha, and the Chuunin exams! No, Akiko's team will not be participating in the chuunin exams, they'll be doing their own things. Doesn't mean people won't get blown up though! Do go vote on which story you're most curious about based on the title, wouldcha?**


	12. Suna Nin and Explosives Don't Mix

**(A/N) Chuunin exams! We're getting close to the end, gosh.**

"I'm recommending you three for the Chuunin exams!" Kakashi chirped, eye smiling at his students.

Sakura grinned, taking one of the forms. "So you can get rid of us?"

"No," Kakashi denied, shaking his head.

"Yes," Naruto and Sakura chorused, nodding their heads. Sasuke just grunted, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Okay, maybe," Kakashi admitted, pushing the forms into Sasuke and Naruto's hands.

Sasuke, still mostly asleep, handed it to Sakura, then wandered back off towards his house.

Sakura giggled. "I'll make sure he signs it, Sensei."

"Right, well then, I'm off!" Kakashi said, shunshining away.

Sakura sighed. "Alright then. Naruto, Sasuke is clearly sleep deprived, make sure he gets home fine and without running into any foreign genin."

Naruto saluted, and ran off, following his friend.

Unfortunately for the very sleepy Uchiha, he ran into the Sand Siblings bullying Konohamaru.

Naruto ran up a moment later, luckily. "Oi! Put Konohamaru down!"

"Hokage's grandson," Sasuke recited.

Naruto held in snickers. Sasuke always did that whenever he was sleep deprived and therefore mostly asleep.

The suna nin with purple makeup on looked slightly frightened, and quickly dropped Konohamaru, who scurried behind Naruto to stick his tongue out at the nin.

"Who're you?" the female suna nin asked.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto shouted. "Explosion specialist! The sleep deprived zombie is Sasuke Uchiha!"

"Temari, Kankuro," a raspy voice said. "You're embarrassing Suna. Stop, or I'll kill you."

"Try it and we'll blow you up, no matter if you're a foreign genin here for the exams!" Naruto shouted, pointing at the red-head who'd spoken.

"That would be inadvisable," Rumi noted, almost appearing at Naruto's side. She nodded to zombie Sasuke, then turned back to the three Suna nin. "I would advise you to be on your way, fights are not encouraged outside of the chuunin exams themselves."

Temari sniffed, turning to walk away. "Will I be seeing you in the chuunin exams?"

Rumi adjusted her glasses. "I will not be partaking this year, but the boys will."

Kankuro just snorted, turning away and walking off.

Gaara disappeared in a sand shunshin, and reappeared in front of his sister, walking away.

Rumi turned to the two. "Perhaps you should be getting home. The chuunin exams begin in less than a week. I would advise being rested, and not sleep-deprived zombies."

Naruto chuckled nervously. "Thanks, Rumi! We'll remember that! See you around sometime!"

Rumi pushed up her glasses again, walking in the opposite direction as the boys, who were headed for Sasuke's apartment on the edge of the Uchiha compound.

After Naruto left, Sakura headed for the hospital. Akiko had walked in three days after them, four children following her. She was soaking wet for reasons yet to be discovered, and the children were malnourished.

"Hey," Sakura said, coming into Akiko's hospital room.

"Hello!" Akiko chirped, stopping her fiddling with the IV. "Kakashi sign you guys up for the chuunin exams?"

"As you predicted," Sakura said, giggling.

"Figures," Akiko said, an amused sparkle in her eyes.

"Feeling better?" Sakura asked.

Akiko nodded. "Yeah. I was feeling fine anyway, but they're keeping me here for observation."

"Any particular reason?" Sakura asked, plopping down in the chair next to the bed.

Akiko nodded. "Just promise you won't compare me to Kisame?"

Sakura looked confused at the odd request but nodded. "Alright, I can do that."

Akiko pulled down the bandages at her neck. "You know a diagnostic jutsu, right? Do it."

Sakura shrugged, made two hand signs, and placed her now glowing hand on the side of Akiko's neck. "Huh? What are those odd structures?"

"Gills," Akiko replied easily. "No, you can't ask how it happened, it's classified."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Everything's classified with you lot."

"Comes with being a jounin," Akiko said ruefully.

Sakura rolled her eyes again. "I'll come again some other time, maybe after the first or second parts of the chuunin exams. See you then."

Akiko grinned good-naturedly. "See you then, perhaps. Visit the kids for me, would'cha?"

"Why not," Sakura said, getting up and walking out of the door.

The kids were all placed in one room, luckily for Sakura.

"Hello," Sakura said cautiously as she entered.

"Hello," one of the two older children said. "Who're you?"

"I'm Sakura. I'm a student of one of Akiko's friends."

They blinked at her in unison.

"What are your names?" Sakura asked, breaking a couple second long awkward silence.

"I'm Rezun," the older one who'd spoken before said. Sakura internally giggled at how his darker skin would probably heavily resemble a raisin when he was old.

"I'm Koshoko," the second older one. Sapphire blue eyes and purple hair made quite the striking combination. Sakura had little doubt she'd have plenty of boys tossing themselves at her feet when she was interested in that sort of thing. And aged up a bit as well. The two older ones were perhaps only a year or two younger then she was.

"Anchobi," one of the younger two. She bore a very close resemblance to the pictures Sakura had found of Naruto's mother, with stunning red hair and purple eyes. Perhaps she was of the same clan, Sakura made a mental note to see if the nurses did genetic tests.

"Otomiru," the smallest one said. Sakura internally squeed over his adorable squeaky voice. His dark brown hair had been cut into a cute crew cut, light brown eyes looking much brighter then they had when she saw him at the gate.

Sakura decided she'd do what she could to make sure they got into good homes. Where ever they had been, they were in Konoha now, and they deserved to be happy.

**(A/N) So, Ministry of Magic, Meet your Downfall's update spot has opened, go see the poll to decide what takes its place. **


	13. Naruto and Sasuke Antagonize Everyone

**(A/N) Chuunin exams properly now. I give it 5 or 6 chapters, then we're done! **

"Chuunin exams!" Naruto shouted, throwing his arms up.

"You think it's a paper test?" Sakura asked, smirking. "It is inside the building…"

Naruto groaned loudly. "Really? A paper test? Can I just light it on fire?"

"You can't light everything on fire," Sasuke said, moving towards the building. "Unfortunately."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "That is not an unfortunate thing. That's a good thing." She herded them inside, and up the stairs. "And besides, you'll have to do paperwork someday."

Naruto pouted dramatically, and Sasuke elbowed him. "Come on, we have a paper to write on!"

"They must all be jerks," Naruto said, hardly blinking at the KI. Sakura knew the entire room heard him from the increased glaring.

"From the miniscule KI they're putting off, I would agree with you," Sasuke said, smirking. The glaring increased further. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"That wasn't hard!" Sakura chirped.

"Even with the puppy dog KI!" Naruto said, grinning mischievously at the people around them who heard him and glared.

Sasuke yawned. "So whadda think we're doing next?"

"Something with that place," Sakura said dryly, pointing to the massive forest in front of them.

"Alright Gaki!" Their proctor, Anko, shouted, a maniacal grin on her face. "This, is Training Ground 44! Better known as The Forest of Death!"

Sakura blinked at the forest. "What's in it?"

"You'll have to find out for yourselves!" Anko chirped. "Now! Fetch a single scroll, and get moving to a gate! Also, take a paper, and sign one! They're waivers so Konoha doesn't get held accountable for your deaths!"

Naruto and Sasuke blinked at each other, and Sakura sighed.

"Awesome!" They said in unison.

Sakura sighed again, rolling her eyes at the slightly nervous looks they got sent.

They were attacked five minutes in. Sakura wasn't even surprised.

Ame nin lunged out of the bushes and attacked them, attempting a frontal assault. Sakura, who'd had the seals ready since they entered, slapped a lightning seal on the one that had attempted to attack her, and lunged out of the way. The nin collapsed to the ground, the lightning wreaking havoc on all of his body's systems.

Sasuke's nin lunged at him, and got his head incinerated. Sasuke stepped out of the way of the now headless body, letting it fall to the ground, then beginning to search it.

Naruto just sort of punched his in the stomach, knocking them out with a clean blow to the head.

"Mine doesn't have it," Sasuke said, looking up from his body. He quickly made the hand signs for another fire jutsu, and incinerated the body, crystalizing a good section of the ground beneath it.

"Mine either," Sakura noted, slapping a paralyzing seal on hers.

"Found it!" Naruto shouted, holding it up triumphantly. "And it's the one we need!"

Sakura smiled, taking the scroll from him and tucking it into her kunai pouch. "Wonderful! Now, let's continue walking, and see if any other idiots try and attack us."

"Maybe they will!" Naruto said optimistically.

"Not those three weird Suna kids," Sasuke decided. "That red-head actually had some potent KI, it was just tightly leashed. He looked a bit insane."

"Oh, the furball is complaining about one of his siblings being here," Naruto noted suddenly.

Sakura facepalmed. "That might have been nice to know before!"

Sasuke tilted his head. "So, the red-head has a fuzzball in him?"

Naruto blinked a few times. "Oh! That explains the fearful looks his siblings gave him!"

"When was that?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"You were a sleep deprived zombie," Naruto explained. "We ran into them, the purple make-up boy had Konohamaru. Rumi showed up and showed them! Sure, she just said a few things, but she totally showed them!"

Sakura chuckled, shaking her head. "Oh boys. Can't go off on your own without getting into trouble, can you."

Naruto flushed.

"In my defense," Sasuke said. "I have no memory of that incident."

"Totally not a defense," Sakura sang, before a sudden wind blew out of nowhere, blowing them all backwards a few feet before they managed to secure themselves with chakra. Sakura crouched down and activated a barrier seal, stopping the wind from reaching them.

"A wind jutsu," Naruto immediately diagnosed. "Too strong to be anything else, especially with big trees like this."

Sasuke frowned. "Who has the ability to do this powerful wind jutsu?"

"The blonde one had a fan," Sakura said. "Could be her, Suna is known for its wind jutsu."

"I am no Suna nin." A grass nin walked out, the wind stopping as soon as it had sprung up.

Sakura didn't drop the barrier seal, pulling out another tag. "Who are you?"

"No one of importance," The nin all but purred.

Sasuke and Naruto shuddered. "Creepy!" Naruto stage whispered to Sakura.

The nin chuckled, an abnormally long tongue coming from their mouth, the appendage shooting for the barrier seal, and shattering it, the dark blue shards of seal energy falling around the trio.

"RUN!" Sakura yelled.

**(A/N) Oh, hello Orochimaru!**


	14. Orochimaru and Drama!

**(A/N) Hello! Oh, do go read at least the newest chapters of HCR, they're kind of important… I mean, you don't have to, but I would. Guest: He channeled chakra to his tongue and overloaded the seal. Kind of. The seals aren't meant to take more then like one type of chakra at a time, so Sakura fueling it and then Orochimaru's intervention, overloaded the seal, making the barrier shatter. **

"_RUN!" Sakura yelled._

Sakura ran in the lead, slapping down barrier seals on every trunk she could hit. Naruto and Sasuke hit which ones they could to charge them, in theory it would give them time to get away. In practice, it wasn't working quite that well, but it was doing something.

Two red flares went up behind them, and Sakura noted them. "C'mon! We have to get to the tower quickly! After those flares, ANBU will start showing up, and we don't want to be disqualified because we interacted with them. Even if there's an enemy in the forest."

"That's what the flare means?" Naruto shouted up, activating another tag, this barrier red.

"Well, it means dangerous missing ninja or invasion, basically something that would require high powered jounin and ANBU," Sakura corrected. "So, we really cannot be here when they arrive!"

"Gah!" Sasuke was abruptly tackled out of the trees, pinned to the ground by a gleeful snake sanin.

"GET AWAY FROM KAKASHI'S STUDENTS!" Akiko shouted, launching herself at the sanin, giant shuriken at the ready to stab him. Unfortunately, she only managed to gut a log, the real snake sanin having substituted away.

Sakura frowned slightly as Akiko checked Sasuke's neck, was there something to worry about? She made a mental note to keep Orochimaru away from Sasuke's neck.

Akiko set Sasuke down again. "Run, I'll hold him off for now. You have two scrolls, right?"

Sakura nodded. They did. From the Ame nin. A slight signal from her, and Sasuke joined her and Naruto in the tree. Together, they fled, Sakura in the lead, Sasuke right behind, Naruto in the back.

"Naruto! Shadow clones!" Sakura snapped after they'd been running for a while.

Puffs of smoke surrounded them, and teams of shadow clones henged as them raced off in every direction.

Sakura changed their direction so they would get to the tower by a slightly more roundabout way, one of the teams of henged clones heading straight for the tower.

"How long till we reach the tower?" Naruto called up. "I only have so much chakra, Sakura!"

"Noted!" Sakura said, her voice slightly strained. Her chakra was running low as well, and she hadn't been doing half the stuff Naruto had. "An hour maybe, but I can't really tell!"

"Sakura," Sasuke said, glancing around with blood red eyes. "We have people behind us."

"Probably the ANBU or some jounin," Sakura replied, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. "Dang it!"

"Stop!" A voice called out behind them. Sakura hissed and skidded to a stop, the boys stopping behind her.

"We don't have time for this," Sakura snapped.

"Then make some," the leader said snidely.

Sakura turned her nose up at him. "We'll see about that."

Naruto pulled out a wind seal. He activated it, sending the sound team flying into the trees. That taken care of, Team 7 resumed their flight through the jungle.

A little while later, the Sound team came after them again.

Sasuke slapped down an electricity tag should they come after them, and sent a fire ball their way. They continued running. They had a tower to reach.

The third time, Sakura sighed, and fully stopped. "We can't afford any more interruptions. We might as well take care of them here."

The leader of the team smirked, readying his arm.

Sakura drew back slightly, narrowing her eyes as she prepared a barrier seal to stop whatever he was going to do.

A sound drove her to her knees, clasping her hands over her ears. Naruto suffered worse, his ears beginning to bleed almost immediately. Sasuke grunted, but otherwise mostly didn't react. Sakura signaled to Sasuke to distract them, and crawled over to Naruto, finding a silencing seal, and slapping two over his ears. Maybe it would help.

It did, and Naruto smiled at her gratefully. Sakura didn't do the same to herself, knowing she had to keep her hearing, in case someone else tried to ambush them.

And someone did. While Sasuke was engaged in a rapidly going south taijutsu battle with the girl, Naruto was fighting the leader, and Sakura was sheltering behind a barrier while she fought the third member, Orochimaru crashed in, destroying Sakura's barrier, knocking out Naruto and the leader in a combined blast, and lunging right for Sasuke. Sakura had been thrown against a tree, a sickening crack accompanying her slumping to the ground, unconsious, and possibly hurt badly.

Sasuke shamelessly sacrificed the girl he was fighting for himself, lunging for Naruto's unconscious body. He lugged him over to lay next to Sakura, then leaped away before Orochimaru could lunge at him, and by extension, his teammates. He started a game of cat and mouse with Orochimaru trying to stall the sannin for long enough for people to reach him and distract the sannin long enough for him to get his two teammates into the tower that was barely 10 meters away.

It paid off, an ANBU squad arriving just in time to find Sasuke stiff as a statue, Orochimaru's fangs sunk deep into his neck.

While the ANBU fought Orochimaru, Sasuke sank to his knees, fighting the pain just long enough to stand up and go over to his teammates, suddenly glad he'd been working on his strength and that his teammates were very light as he lifted them both over his shoulders and staggered as fast as he could for the tower.

He got inside before setting his teammates down, pulling out the two scrolls, and throwing them to open them. As soon as Iruka appeared, he passed out, his vision going abruptly black.

**(A/N) DRAMA!**


	15. Preliminaries and Bluffing

**(A/N) Prelims!**

He woke up in the medical room, immediately bringing an arm up to shield his eyes.

"Oh, you're awake!" One of the medics said, coming over immediately.

Sasuke groaned, not bothering to remove the arm over his eyes. "H-How long have I been out?" It must have been a while, because his voice was raspy with a lack of water and some disuse.

"Almost two days. You're lucky, you woke up just in time for the preliminaries."

"My teammates?" Sasuke managed to ask after he'd gotten a cup of water.

"Both are doing fine. Sakura managed a spinal fracture and will be taking it easy for at least a month, and Naruto is mostly uninjured. They're both in the main room right now, are you strong enough to meet them?"

Sasuke nodded, wincing slightly as the bite mark on his shoulder flared painfully. Nothing like the original crippling pain, but still painful.

Sasuke waved off the worried medic, limping slightly to the room he was directed towards.

"If any of you wish to give up here, this part is no longer team based. If you leave, your team will be unaffected," the sickly looking proctor coughed right after, giving the impression that really, it was him that should be walking out.

"I give up," a silver haired genin spoke, raising his hand. "I'm too low on chakra to continue."

Sasuke snuck a glance at Sakura, who was on crutches, but she remained resolute, not raising her hand, or saying she withdrew. Sasuke assumed she had a plan, and didn't bring it up with her.

Sakura did indeed have a plan. Hinging on the assumption she got a Konoha Shinobi. The chances were very good that she could bluff her way out of a match using one of the many seals she had stored away in her pouch. She may not be able to move too well, but she could manage without her crutches for a short time, hopefully long enough to bluff her way out of the match, or loose completely.

With no one else leaving, they were dismissed to go up to the balconies until they were selected.

"Are you alright, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, sounding only slightly worried.

Sakura nodded, handing her crutches to him and leaning heavily on the railing. "I'm fine, just really sore. It'll take a bit for my back to heal me, but should I survive this round, I'll be fine by the time the finals roll around. I'll have to take it a bit easy, and really, depending on who does move on, I'm not really expecting to get past the first round of the finals."

"I'm sure you'll do great Sakura-chan!" Naruto declared, puffing up his chest. "And I'll take revenge on whoever knocks you out!"

"If I don't get to them first," Sasuke countered.

"If it's one of you two that finally knocks me out, you do not have permission to beat each other into a bloody pulp," Sakura sighed, looping an arm around Sasuke's neck and using him to remain standing up.

"I second that," Kakashi agreed, placing a firm hand on Naruto's head.

"Oh, look Sasuke, you're up," Sakura said, swapping to using Naruto as her crutch. Kakashi tried to offer her the crutches she'd handed him earlier, but she waved him off.

Sasuke vaulted over the railing, landing on the floor across from his opponent, one of the silver haired genin's teammates.

"Begin," the proctor, Hayate Gekko, coughed. Sakura had looked up his records once, purely because she was curious if there were any crippled shinobi. He wasn't exactly crippled, but his illness, a chronic cough, kept him from ever reaching his peak. Which was unfortunate.

The other genin leaped at Sasuke, his hands lighting up blue.

It wasn't medical chakra, so it couldn't be chakra scalpels, and it wasn't Akiko-sensei's lightning hands technique, so why were his hands glowing with chakra?

Sasuke was barely brushed against, and he staggered slightly, pulling out a seal tag immediately. Oh. He could drain chakra. Sasuke needed to finish up quickly, he still wasn't fully recovered from the whole forest thing. Naruto was the only one that had, and Sakura was fairly sure she had the Kyuubi to thank for that. Just gave him one more advantage in the long run. And besides, they would both be mostly if not fully recovered by the time the finals rolled around, so that was a good thing.

The other guy got zapped, and fell over, chakra hands deactivating as he toppled, smoking slightly. Sasuke trotted back up to them.

"Stupid chakra draining hands," he said immediately, leaning against Kakashi.

"It looked annoying," Sakura agreed sympathetically as the next match started.

"Sasuke, what's that on your neck?" Kakashi asked, looking slightly worried as he pulled Sasuke's collar out of the way slightly to get a better look.

"Huh? A bite mark? The snake idiot left it."

"The marking," Kakashi corrected.

Naruto poked his head over, examining the three tomoe just visible on Sasuke's neck. "It looks like a seal! But who applies a seal by biting someone?! So unhygenic. Eww."

"I highly doubt the snake cares about hygiene," Sakura noted, rolling her eyes.

Sasuke snorted. "Probably not."

"Eww," Naruto repeated, poking the seal.

"Ow, watch it!" Sasuke snapped, whacking Naruto's arm.

"But I have to examine it to seal it," Naruto replied reasonably.

Sasuke frowned. "Fine."

"How quickly can you seal it?" Sakura asked, distractedly noting another match's passage.

"10 minutes maybe? Including writing out a sequence."

"Wait until after then," Kakashi said. "You can manage to suppress the seal for a while longer, right Sasuke?"

Sasuke nodded. "So does it do anything besides look annoying?"

Sakura snorted as her name was called. "Probably something weird. I'll see you guys in a moment, excuse me."

She walked down to the floor, facing Ino. "Ino."

"Sakura," Ino greeted.

"Begin," Hayate said, bringing his hand down, and leaping away.

Sakura smirked, and pulled out a tag. Ino backed up slightly. "Forfeit and I won't set the tag on you."

Ino lunged forward for an attack, which Sakura barely avoided, slapping the tag down in the middle of Ino's back and moving backwards as fast as she could, which really wasn't much.

"I repeat. Forfeit, and I won't activate the tag. I believe it's a lightning seal, but you never know with the boys."

Ino paled drastically, and forfeited. Sakura limped back to her team, removing the tag from Ino as she went, and checking what it was.

She snorted as she approached the boys. "I defeated her with a water seal."

Ino squawked in outrage as she overheard Sakura.

**(A/N) Certainly an interesting way to win a match, no? Especially when physically impaired. If you haven't already, I have a poll up, so go vote. **


	16. Chapter 16

**(A/N) Finals. Finallly! Also I'm sorry about the lack of battle, but I cannot concentrate for the life of me cause I might have found the coolest MHA fic ever and it's over 300,000 words, so, hehe, I'm a bit distracted and it's 1 in the morning and I have to get up at 6, so I'm being stupid uploading this now. But yeah. Promise I'm sleeping right after this tho. Sorry again about the lack of actual fights. Sorry it's short too. **_**We're like so close to the end and I'm so sorry that this isn't going well.**_

"Go Naruto!" Sakura shouted, waving her arm. He grinned up at her and waved back. Neji glared heavily at both of them.

Naruto being Naruto, both of them were completely knocked out by the end of their match, and Sakura sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Just one time! One time I would like him to not be unconscious at the end of a spar."

"Probably won't happen," Sasuke noted, shrugging when she looked at him.

"Whatever. I have an Aburame to fight," Sakura sighed, hopping down into the arena.

"I'm impressed you managed to tie with him," Kakashi said once she woke up. "The Aburame are a major clan afterall."

Sakura hummed noncommittally, groaning right after as her ribs and spine protested. "I'm not doing missions for a month after this. And possibly not training either, if you'll give me that. Ow…"

"That throw did look pretty bad," Kakashi agreed.

"Might have even cracked a rib," Sakura muttered, groaning again.

"Don't let the boys hear," Kakashi replied, only half joking.

"They can't do anything, Shino's out of the tournament too," Sakura said, shrugging slightly, and wincing when the movement didn't agree with her injuries.

"Perhaps, but you know how they are," Kakashi said, sighing at the thought.

"I do," Sakura agreed, sighing as well. "How long have I been out?"

"Not too long, Shikamaru and Temari are currently in a battle of wits. He extends his reach, she moves away, rinse and repeat."

"Sounds interesting, although I'm sure the boys are chomping at the bit."

"Indeed," Kakashi agreed. "Well, I should probably head out to reign them in. You may follow if you wish, but I would suggest staying here."

"I'll get my ribs wrapped and my spine checked," Sakura said, looking around for a nurse. "Then I'll follow you."

Kakashi seemed fine with that, so Sakura flagged down a nurse when he left, getting her ribs checked at.

**(A/N) I'm suuuper sorry, but like, I can't concentrate, and it's really late, and I have to be up really early, and this is short, and weird and has no battle cause I have no ability to write fights, and a lot of this will likely be skipped cause dangit this and HCR are supposed to be on the same page, and Akiko isn't letting me waste time with her and it's just a big mess. I'm terribly sorry, sorry you had to listen to my rant, and goodnight. **


	17. Chapter 17

**(A/N) Finals. Finallly! Also I'm sorry about the lack of battle, but I cannot concentrate for the life of me cause I might have found the coolest MHA fic ever and it's over 300,000 words, so, hehe, I'm a bit distracted and it's 1 in the morning and I have to get up at 6, so I'm being stupid uploading this now. But yeah. Promise I'm sleeping right after this tho. Sorry again about the lack of actual fights. Sorry it's short too. **_**We're like so close to the end and I'm so sorry that this isn't going well.**_

"Go Naruto!" Sakura shouted, waving her arm. He grinned up at her and waved back. Neji glared heavily at both of them.

Naruto being Naruto, both of them were completely knocked out by the end of their match, and Sakura sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Just one time! One time I would like him to not be unconscious at the end of a spar."

"Probably won't happen," Sasuke noted, shrugging when she looked at him.

"Whatever. I have an Aburame to fight," Sakura sighed, hopping down into the arena.

"I'm impressed you managed to tie with him," Kakashi said once she woke up. "The Aburame are a major clan afterall."

Sakura hummed noncommittally, groaning right after as her ribs and spine protested. "I'm not doing missions for a month after this. And possibly not training either, if you'll give me that. Ow…"

"That throw did look pretty bad," Kakashi agreed.

"Might have even cracked a rib," Sakura muttered, groaning again.

"Don't let the boys hear," Kakashi replied, only half joking.

"They can't do anything, Shino's out of the tournament too," Sakura said, shrugging slightly, and wincing when the movement didn't agree with her injuries.

"Perhaps, but you know how they are," Kakashi said, sighing at the thought.

"I do," Sakura agreed, sighing as well. "How long have I been out?"

"Not too long, Shikamaru and Temari are currently in a battle of wits. He extends his reach, she moves away, rinse and repeat."

"Sounds interesting, although I'm sure the boys are chomping at the bit."

"Indeed," Kakashi agreed. "Well, I should probably head out to reign them in. You may follow if you wish, but I would suggest staying here."

"I'll get my ribs wrapped and my spine checked," Sakura said, looking around for a nurse. "Then I'll follow you."

Kakashi seemed fine with that, so Sakura flagged down a nurse when he left, getting her ribs checked at.

**(A/N) I'm suuuper sorry, but like, I can't concentrate, and it's really late, and I have to be up really early, and this is short, and weird and has no battle cause I have no ability to write fights, and a lot of this will likely be skipped cause dangit this and HCR are supposed to be on the same page, and Akiko isn't letting me waste time with her and it's just a big mess. I'm terribly sorry, sorry you had to listen to my rant, and goodnight. **


	18. Chapter 18

**(A/N) Yeah this story is done this chapter. It will end here. **

Naruto didn't have many problems with his lineup in the final exams. Neji hadn't actually been that difficult of a fight.

Gaara was far worse of a fight. Even with Sakura and Sasuke backing him up, he was barely holding his own against the giant Tanuki.

He slapped an explosion tag down on the tanuki's leg, leaping away then exploding it.

"Still nothing?" Sakura shouted.

Naruto shook his head. "Nothing!"

"Should we try taking out the source?" Sasuke chimed in. "Gaara did have to fall asleep to let the tanuki fully out, what if we wake him up!"

"Good thinking!" Sakura yelled gleefully. "Let's do it! Naruto, distract him for a while longer! Sasuke, pull out whatever you can without dying, and I'll head for Gaara."

Naruto pulled out more explosive tags, creating a bunch of clones in the same breath. "I got this!"

"Thanks!" Sakura said, running up a nearby tree trunk with the clear intention to vault onto the tanuki's head.

Sasuke fired off a fire jutsu, distracting the tanuki just enough for Sakura to leap onto the tanuki's head, using chakra enhanced massive leaps to cross the head to Gaara as fast as she could, slamming her fist into Gaara's stomach, clearly waking up the boy.

The sand tanuki dissolved soon after, leaving Sakura falling through the air, only to be caught by one of Naruto's many clones.

"Good job!" Naruto chirped, setting her on the ground, what she assumed to be the original hopping down beside her, the clones all popping.

"We should get him back to Konoha, sensei and the ANBU can deal with him from there," Sasuke noted, walking over and poking the dazed Gaara with his foot.

Sakura sighed, pushing Sasuke away from Gaara and picking up the teen herself. "Don't be cruel Sasuke."

"We were just fighting a biju," Sasuke deadpanned. "By ourselves. Because his village is attacking ours. Do I really need to continue?"

"I hope the casualties aren't too bad," Naruto fretted, flapping his arms.

"They shouldn't be," Sakura muttered. "Konoha has a lot of strong shinobi. We don't get taken down easily."

"Right," Naruto said, staring worriedly at the approaching stadium. "Is it over?"

"I wouldn't be surprised, we've been away for quite a while," Sakura said.

"Konoha deals with invasions pretty quickly after we go into the second stage, and I saw that hawk a while ago," Sasuke agreed, shrugging. "Second Stage is when everyone goes in for the kill because no civvies are left outside of the bunkers. Means everyone is focused on getting rid of the invaders."

"See Naruto, everything should be fine." Sakura smiled reassuringly as they hopped back through the hole from last time. Sakura set the unconscious, although not possessed boy down in a seat, leaving him to sleep while she checked around for their teacher.

The Hokage was dead, and they needed a new one. Sakura kept Naruto tucked under her arm, letting him cry into her shirt. Sasuke was on her other side, furiously wiping away tears that be would deny existed later. Her tears weren't absent, of course, but she quietly wiped them away when she needed to, letting them fall otherwise.

They'd survive, they'd move past this, they had to.

**(A/N) I am a terrible procrastinator. Anyway, this is the end, there'll be a poll up at some point, so keep an eye out for that. **


End file.
